Behind the scenes at Red Bull and Ford’s F1 engine project

On the Tuesday before Silverstone’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone a handful of media are welcomed into the Jochen Rindt building. It is the location on the Red Bull Campus in Milton Keynes where Red Bull Powertrains and Ford are working away with hundreds of employees on Red Bull’s own engine project for 2026.

That year, both the engine and chassis regulations will undergo a major overhaul in F1. On the engine side, the MGU-H will disappear, but the percentage of electric power will go up considerably to an almost fifty-fifty split with the internal combustion engine. The V6 has to run on sustainable fuels.

Just as big a change for Red Bull is that Honda leaves as its engine partner that year. Currently, all Red Bull Racing and RB engines are still produced in Japan. But as Honda will join forces with Aston Martin, Red Bull has taken its fate into its own hands by creating its own engines, for the first time in its 20-year existence.

As the energy drinks giant faces its biggest challenge to date, Red Bull Powertrains is offering a rare look behind doors that are normally closed.

The day starts with a reception in MK7, the building where many Red Bull cars from previous F1 seasons are on display. After that it is time to head over to the Red Bull Powertrains facility, where Christian Horner and Ford Motorsports chief Mark Rushbrook explain that work on the building started early 2022.

Work on the ICE section (internal combustion engine) began first, followed by the ERS department early this year, dealing with the electrical components of the engine that will become even more important under the 2026 regulations.

After we are told that it is strictly forbidden to take photos – with work in full swing – we walk towards ‘Brodie’s Boulevard’.

This hallway is named after Steve Brodie, an employee who was one of the first to come over from Mercedes HPP in August 2021 and played an important role in setting up the Powertrains facility. His official title is ‘Head of Power Unit Operations’, which means Brodie is in charge of the ICE and ERS build shops to make sure Red Bull-Ford build it to the correct specifications, standards and consistency.

One of the engines can be seen immediately upon entering. “This was the very first combustion engine we made,” Horner explains. “The fire-up of this V6 was in August 2022. Dietrich Mateschitz was able to hear this first…